Games

It’s the same old song and dance you’ve heard from movies like “You’ve Got Mail” to games like “Cake Mania”. Corporate America is taking over and ruining the little mom and pop shops, or in this case a whole town. While the premise is actually a bit more depressing than entertaining, Profitville still manages to make it loads of fun. There’s no question that this game will test your sorting and judgment skills, and you’ll get so caught up in it that you’ll often wonder where your time has gone. The real question is whether or not you have what it takes to put Profitville back on the map again.

From what little I know about Cave, they’re pretty famous for make excellent games that fall under the category of “bullet hell” scrolling shooters. Bug Panic is certainly a far cry from that style of game play. That doesn’t make it any less challenging, mind you, and actually goes to show that Cave is more than a one trick pony. More importantly, it’s actually a nice change of pace from the typical dual stick shooter, which is the category it actually falls into. The anime style cut scenes and overall cuteness might night be everyone’s cup of tea, but if you’re looking for a challenging dual stick shooter that doesn’t just feel like a clone of the rest, Bug Panic is a good choice for you.

The Flaming Igloo game is a fairly enjoyable yet challenging game. The basic premise is you have to put out fires on your igloo by throwing snow balls at it. If the fire goes on to long you’ll have to throw a large piece of ice at the igloo to fix it. The makers of this game did a good job with the physics of the game making it challenging to throw the ice or snow at the right spot on the igloo. There are many levels which get more challenging as you go and add in additional options.

Would you believe me if I told you Corpse Granny was another physics-based puzzle game? Of course you would, because it’s been at least a couple of days since I’ve reviewed one of those. This game does well what any physics based game should do – it lets the player manipulate objects to drop on, bounce into or otherwise dispose of various targets. In this case those targets are zombies, which is just a nice bonus. There are some great ideas in this game, but the pacing is a bit off and the introduction of new items is somewhat haphazard. It hasn’t grabbed me quite as well as some other puzzle games, which is a shame because there is lots of potential.

Playing without physical controls (buttons), only using the touchscreen, is pretty hard. This includes a lot of game types, particularly ones where quick direction changes are needed and / or you can't make the smallest mistake and must be absolutely sure even the smallest movements on the directional pads (D-pad for short) is registered. In games like these, physical D-pad / button feedback is of extreme importance.

If you’ve been an iPhone gamer for any decent length of time and managed to go without playing a game from Chillingo (or Clickgamer), I’m both impressed and a bit scared. For the rest of us, we know by now that they have a pretty good knack for choosing fun, light hearted puzzle / platform / physics / whatever style games, and Blobster is no exception. I’m not sure that there’s anything here that’s really new, but it’s all put together in a way that is both entertaining and fresh. As long as Chillingo keeps publishing games like this, you can expect me to be along for the ride.

I watched the promo videos for this game and decided it was something I really needed to try. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. At once this game is both intriguing and frustrating. I feel like I’m spending too much time traipsing over the same hallways over and over again, yet every time I find a journal entry or news clipping I really want to know more about what’s going on. I think this game is as much a product of its environment as anything, because I really don’t believe it would be nearly as much fun to explore if it didn’t look so good, yet it’s easy to lose a half hour or forty-five minutes wandering the hallways of Dark Meadow in the blink of an eye.

Rovio, the developer of the wildly popular Angry Birds game, announced earlier today that the game has reached half a billion downloads in less than two years. This makes it one of the most popular downloaded games ever. And for good measure, Rovio gives the following stats: "Angry Birds Fans around the world have so far played a total of 200,000 years of Angry Birds, with 300 million minutes of playing time daily.

Are you ready for the ultimate bubble popping experience? Forget all those games that simulate bubble wrap and prepare to fling your thing. This new game from Big Blue Bubble is odd, quirky and probably one of the most entertaining bubble related games I’ve played on my iPod Touch. The things are goofy, the power ups are cool, and the whole atmosphere just exudes addictive causal game. Unlockables take a bit of time to acquire, but that’s really my only gripe so far.

Last Temple is one of those matching games where you must drag your finger across three or more adjacent tiles of the same type to clear them. It’s actually a pretty solid implementation of such game play, and the challenges are certainly quite a challenge. However, Last Temple doesn’t really bring anything new to the genre. I remember having lots of fun playing a similar game called Azkend, and I just don’t get the same sense of addiction from Last Temple as I did from that game. If you love this type of game play (or are new to it) then Last Temple is a decent choice, but if this sub-genre of matching games has kind of warn on you, it might be better if you waited for Azkend 2.

Most side scrolling shooters involve aircraft of some sort, but few are taken from the viewpoint of the “bad guys”. This is, however, the scenario of Invasion Earth: 1953, a post-Roswellian look at aliens trying to take over our beloved planet. That’s basically it for a plot, and there’s not a lot of variety to the action. What keeps drawing me back into the game however, are the (sometimes insane) goals and that need to try “just one more time” to reach them. Invasion Earth doesn’t have a lot of the bells and whistles of many of its peers, but it has a satisfyingly addictive quality about it anyway.

ShadowGun is a graphics-fest of apocolyptic scenery, monsters, and technological nightmares! The game has some genuinely fun and hair-raising tactical scenarios (some predictable enemy behavior as well). The control options work well, and the game is very responsive in all but a few situations. If you are looking for yet another uber-assault TPS game that is simply gorgeous on iPad, then I imagine you will not flinch at plunking down the 8 bucks. TPS is not necessarily my cup of tea, but ShadowGun is a blast, and it is well-done.